George Baines, who has died aged 82, was one of the generation of headteachers who led radical change in primary school education in the 1950s and 60s. Under their leadership, primary schools came to look, sound and feel very different from their prewar counterparts. They became hives of activity, where children were occupied in a variety of carefully designed and differently ordered spaces, supported by teachers working co-operatively in teams, and where it was difficult to locate the classroom in the traditional sense. Often labelled "open-plan", they were highly structured, flexible but precisely designed spaces that encouraged teachers to use a wide range of possible strategies to support learning.

Those who worked in such schools were committed to an education that followed and guided the needs and interests of each child, who was viewed as being entirely equipped to learn, given the right environment.

George believed in the infinite potential of children and conveyed a strong sense of the privilege of working with them. His approach was not always easily understood by other teachers and parents, but his abiding belief was that the content and nature of education should be dictated by the needs of children rather than the convenience of teachers. "I am sure that teaching is an art and that teachers are artists," he said. "The teacher teaches what he is, more than what he knows, and as an artist, involved and giving of himself with love." These were high aims to live up to, and his influence shaped many people's approach to teaching, and to life.

The youngest of 13 children born to a farming family in New Bradwell, Buckinghamshire, George lost his father when he was four, and a sister brought him up because their mother was disabled. The only one of his family to go to grammar school, he later studied literature as a mature student, and poetry became one of his passions.

After the second world war, teachers for the newly created primary schools were in short supply and George, by then a bank clerk, was helping out at youth clubs in his spare time when he was encouraged to train. He attended Newland Park Training College, Buckinghamshire (1951-53), and taught in schools in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, before being appointed as headmaster of Brize Norton primary school, Oxfordshire, in 1962, where he first began to experiment with spatial aspects of the teaching environment. His work with layouts, furnishings and timetabling there was observed and recorded by architects working for the Ministry of Education, and informed the design of new schools.

In 1966 he was appointed headteacher of Eynsham County primary school, Oxfordshire. There he spent a year preparing the teachers for the move into a new school building that had been purpose-built to support and promote recently developed teaching methods.

At Eynsham, George wanted the building itself to be a kind of teacher, with a "geography" that the children could understand, and with as wide a variety of spaces as possible supporting different kinds of activity. Under the guidance of Edith Moorhouse, a senior adviser for primary schools in Oxfordshire, the design of the school became a model for others to follow with its vertical groupings of children – groups of mixed ages within the whole primary age range of 5-11 – domesticated "home bays" with cooking areas, "book corners" for quiet study, and separate bays for art, craft and nature study.

The children would begin the day with whatever task they wished, before the whole school gathered for morning assembly, and at the end of the day they would talk over their activities with their own teacher in their "home bay". For the rest of the day, they moved freely around the building, depending upon what type of activity they wished to do, and during this period they could ask for help from any teacher.

There was a strong sense of direction, with teachers supporting each child in acquiring the "six selves": self-awareness, self-confidence, self-direction, self-discipline, self-criticism and self-esteem – acquired in that order. The whole school community, adults and children, were encouraged to work with "industry, integrity and imagination". If the " three Is" and " six selves" were developing well, with good teaching, he believed the "three Rs" would follow.

At Eynsham, George worked alongside Judith Purbrook, a gifted teacher who was to become his deputy head, and in 1974 they married. Over the years, George lectured throughout Britain and abroad, and his schools were visited by educators and architects from all over the world. He and Judith retired from Eynsham in 1983, but they both went on to teach Inset (In-service-training) courses at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, in the mid-80s. George was admired as a teacher of teachers, as he could talk from "authentic experience".

I first met George and Judith at their home on Arran in July 2007 to make a film of their conversations with the late architect David Medd about their collaborations in designing primary schools in the 1950s and 60s. A Baines archive is now at the London Institute of Education, including teachers' guides, building plans and children's work. In the past few years, reviews of the primary curriculum have revisited the philosophies that guided George, and he came to believe the tide was turning in his favour. He became a Quaker during his time at Brize Norton, a faith that he shared with Judith, who survives him.

• George Baines, teacher and educationist, born 2 February 1927; died 26 September 2009